Two injured as Waterford school bus crashes; no children on board

Amanda Godin expected her children home from school around 4 p.m. Tuesday. An hour beforehand, she heard the crash — outside her apartment at the River’s Edge complex in Waterford Township.

“I looked out my window, and saw a bus. ... I was terrified,” said Godin, watching police and fire officials clean up the remains of an accident that sent two to the hospital and totaled both vehicles involved.

The crash, between a Waterford School District bus and a Chevrolet S-10 pickup, happened after school hours at the corner of Elizabeth Lake and Airport roads. No children were inside the bus during the accident, officials report.

Initial investigations indicate that both vehicles appeared to have gone through the intersection during a yellow light. The pickup, traveling west on Elizabeth, hit the bus — which was turning left onto northbound Airport Road — nearly head-on.

Godin said she saw two people, possibly in their 20s, get transported to a nearby hospital as she watched from the open field at her apartment complex, which overlooks the intersection.

White Lake resident Lisa Rietzler, 50, who happens to be an employee of Pontiac-based Star EMS, was driving westbound on Elizabeth Lake Road with her husband when she saw the accident.

“I looked down the hill and said ‘Oh (shoot),’” said Rietzler.

She got out of her car and checked the people inside of the pickup, which was for injuries. There were three teenagers.

“One of the guys hit the windshield,” she said, smoking a cigarette on the shoulder of the road. “He lost consciousness for a bit, couldn’t remember what happened.”

The other two teens in the car had minor seat belt burns and abrasions, she said. When Waterford police and fire officials arrived, they sent two of the pickup’s passengers to McLaren Oakland Hospital.

Dominic Rochowiac, 16, was driving by the accident Tuesday afternoon. He saw emergency personnel taking people out of the pickup on stretcher, he said.

Waterford Fire Captain John Lyman confirmed that the two taken to the hospital had minor body injuries and a “decreased level of consciousness.”

The driver of the pickup, Zack Brown, 17, was standing on the shoulder at the intersection after the accident, pacing. The Waterford Mott High School student said he slammed on his truck’s brakes when he saw the bus trying to turn, but skidded into the intersection, hitting the bus on the front passenger side.

The bus driver suffered minor injuries, and she was treated and released at the scene, said Wateford Fire Capt. John Lyman.

Waterford police officers came to the scene and directed traffic while Airport Road near the crash site was closed for nearly an hour. Crash reconstruction crews cleaned up the oil that spilled out onto the road from the collision, and both vehicles were towed away.

Authorities do not believe alcohol was a factor in this accident. The investigation remains open, said police.